Musical instrument of the string type



Juhe 14, 1949.

Filed April 11, 1946 C. B. PAGE MUSICAL INSTRUMENT OF THE STRING TYPE 4Sheets-Sheei 1 Q? 4 cz Y0! ,9. PA 65,

June 14, 1949. c. B. PAGE 2,473,442

MUSICAL INSTRUMENT OF THE STRING TYPE Filed April 11, 1946 4Sheets-Sheet 2 6 Z, 36a Y O I U I I Q I Q I l n ooounoouo nIQIUCIIIOQOIO. "II/4 71 WIIIIIIIIIIII/IIIII; I

r c. B. PAGE MUSICAL INSTRUMENT THE STRING TYPE Filed April 11, 1945June 14, 1949.

4 SheeTs-Sheet 3 June 14, 1949. c. B. PAGE 2,473,442

MUSICAL INSTRUMENT OF THE STRING TYPE 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Filed April ll,1946 QWH I INVENTOR (Zgde Page;

Patented June 14, 1949 h l'lili lifdiii i STATES OFFICE Clyde B. Page,Baton Rouge, La. ApplicationApril 11, 1946,-S'erialNo."661,270

7 Claims. '1 "This invention relates --to improvements in musicalinstruments oi'the string type and has particuiarrelation to suchinstruments of the type known colloquially asautoharps,' one form ora-general class; which utilizes strin damping structures for--producingthe chord effects as-the=pick is drawnacross the string zongall stringsbeing damped excepting those actually used inproducingthe particularchord that is selected.

-Anumber-ofdifierent forms of devices of this general type,'known as thezither-type, have been deyeloped', some of them beingdesi'gned to permitoh the playingof themore classical types of music, being of somewhatintricate and elaborate structure designed topermit the playing of awide range of music; some, for instance, are arranged to permit shiftingof the dampers from string tostring to-enable playing in different keys.Ofthese are notch-1y expensive-but require much training and carefuloperation in order to obtain the. desired results, and hence reach inthe direction of the virtuoso type of instruments, the players becomingspecialists; Instruments of this type generally produce a tone timbre ofa special type, mostly inthe metallic direction, since the" stringsare-generally of metal.

In order to reach in the direction of the public generally,there wasearlydeveloped an inexpensive imitation of the type which became knownas the auto-harp, designed more particularly in the nature of' a musicaltoy foryouths'. The arrangement was simplified with a less number ofstrings, and would permit of the playing of simple music withoutrequiring much instruction. The instrument had considerable vogue in theearlier dam; but its use gradually decreased, and during the presentmodern period is seldom seen or heard. This'decadencecommerciallyis-probably due to a number of factors. For instance, not only wasthemusic confined to simpletypes, such as could be learned with littleinstruction and practice, but the tone timbre washighly metallic andlacked sweetness, more on the tin-penny type; hence, as the public grew"more educated musically, the instrument use grew less, with the userstaking up more intricate and costly forms of th class.

The present invention is, designed; to overcome this decadence in use ofthe auto-harp, and to make it an acceptable and desirable instrumentand. yet preserve one of the features of itsearly aims, the productionof a musical" instrument of the, type which'can,be, produced: at a lowor reasonable-cost,- and thus permit its more general usage.,among-thoseror: the public unable to 011-- tain; the costly.instrument, or who-may laclcthe high musical. talent neededas theincentive to devote the time. required for lengthy training in de-'veloping efiicient use of the. costly instrument. The invention aimsprimarily tov provide improved tone timbre, and to-permitof the playingor higher grades of music including music unplayable. on the earlierforms.

To these and. other-ends, therefore, thenature of which will beunderstood as. the invention is. disclosed, my invention consists in theimproved constructions. and combinations of parts hereinafter moreparticularly described, illustrated inthe accompanying drawings, andmore particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

Inthe accompanying drawings, in which similar reference charactersindicate similar parts in each of the views- Figure 1 illustrates a planview of an auto-harp of'the present invention;

:Figure 2 illustrates a fragmentary top plan view of the damper barzone, the parts being shown on an enlarged scale;

"Figure 3 illustrates a sectional view taken on the line 33 of Fig. 2,the parts being shown in inactive damping positions;

Figure 4' illustrates-a similar view with damping bar moved intodampingposition;

Figure 5 illustrates afragmentary sectional view taken or! line'5--5 ofFig. 3;

Figure 6 illustrates a. sectional view taken on the line 6-6 of Fig. 4;

Figure? illustrates line 'l--1-' of Fig. 3;

' Figure 8- illustrates the line 8-8 of Fig. 3;

Figure 9 illustrates a longitudinal section through the harp; and

Figure 10 illustrates a section taken onthey line l0l 0 of Fig. 9.

In the present invention, the body ID of; the instrument has the generalconfiguration or the a sectional view taken on a sectional view taken onearlier form, but has larger. dimensions, being wider and ofgreaterdepth. vThe greater width permits of an increase of. the range of theinstrument, the preferred form including the strings for the chromaticscale of a, complete. three octaves, beginning at F,-and those of afourth octave extending to D (with C sharp omitted) thus utilizingforty-five strings in pro;- d'ucingthe range of the instrument. In thepreferred form, the overall length is'2'1.5"', with the length of theshorter side. reduced; the overall width (at the string base end) is135"", and at the narrow end (the tuning peg end) is 7.125". The tuningpegs i l are located in the vicinity of the narrow width and inclinedside edges, the tail end of the instrument, while the opposite ends ofthe strings are secured in the vicinity of the overall width edge,suitable string rests I2 and I3 being supported by the top of theinstrument, rest i2 conforming generally to and extending substantiallyparallel with the narrow width and inclined side edges, While rest I3extends approximately parallel with the overall width edge.

As usual, the body is hollow, but the overall depth of the instrument isincreased to 4.125", a considerable increase over the depth of the priorforms, thus materially increasing the depth between the top I4 andbottom I5; the top carries the sound hole I6, of material dimensions,the internal depth being at least 4' in the earlier forms of theauto-harp, the latter depth was 1.5". This difference in depth not onlyprovides for greater volume, but changes the tone-timbre to a materialextent. In addition, the sound hole I6 is of increased diameter (3.5" ascompared with 2.5" of the earlier form) and is located at such pointthat the user, in picking the harp, provides the picking action over thezone carrying this hole.

structurally, the top I4 and bottom I5 are separated and supported by anintermediate framework, made up primarily of a member I! located in theend zone of greatest width, and an angular member I8 located at the endof smaller width and the inclined side; member I8 may be of separateparts secured together to provide the desired shape. These members areformed of wood, and in the illustrated form may have a width of 2" and adepth of 3.875". The members are connected b longitudinal braces 20,located at the opposite sides of the harp and are individual for the topand bottom zones of members I! and I8; these may be 1.5" X .8125 incross section and are dovetailed into position and glued; in addition, abrace 20a (.5" x .75) connects members I I and I8 midway of the lengthof member I! at the bottom of the frame-work (two of such braces,properly spaced, may be used, if desired). The framework is completed bycross-braces 2|; these are preferably located at the top in spacedpositions, being dovetailed and glued to braces 20 and member I8 (theymay, if desired, extend diagonally from top to bottom).

No metal is used in securing the framework together, excepting the useof a single screw at the ends of the bottom braces 2!! and 20a, to aidin withstanding the tension effects produced by the strings; b limitingthe metal of the framework to the screws referred to, the tendency toprovide a metallic tone timbre to the harp is largely reduced, so thatthe timbre is greatly enhanced.

The member I"! carries on its outer side the stationary pegs 22 overwhich the looped end of each string 23 is passed, these pegs beingfitted into the member at the proper distances and extend outward adistance sufficient to receive the looped ends of the strings.

The tuning pegs II of the harp are carried by the top of the angularmember I8, being properly positioned thereon to provide a string zone inwhich the strings are spaced uniformly, or substantially so, extendinglengthwise of the harp; this zone is considered as the tail zone of theharp. Th top I 4 and bottom I5 are secured to the similar portions ofthe internal framework in suitable manner, as by gluing. To complete theharp frame, the periphery of the sides of the internal framework isenclosed by wood veneerlike faces which may, for purposes of appearance,also extend over the exposed margins of the member I8.

As with harps of this type, the assemblage is equipped with a successionof damper bars which individually carry felt members used for dampingout string vibrations; spaces between the felt dampeners permit theundamped string or strings to have vibration and thus provide the tone.The bars, when brought into contact with the strings, serve to providechord effects, as the pick. is drawn across the strings. Generally,twelve of such bars are present in such harp assemblages, with each barformed as an individual, with respect to the felt member positions, andgenerally provide three different chord effects in connection with eachof four dominant strings, thus providing for playing in four differentkeys; while its might be possible to provide a set of each of such barsfor each of the twelve tones of a chromatic scale, it is apparent thatsuch an increase in the number of bars would set up confusion to theplayer who would be required to.

make his selection from such a large number, when, in playing aselection, but a few of the bars may actually be used. Twelve bars havegenerally been considered as the limit in this respect, and since thesimpler selections are generally found in the ranges provided by thefour. sets of bars, the prior harps can meet the conditions with such anumber of sets.

However, there are many selectionswhich involve change of key (actual orpseudo) into keys not included in these sets; obviously, such selectionsare not playable on such prior harps un-. less the selection bere-arranged, tending to break down the designed characteristics of theselection. Other selections may require particular chord combinationswhich are not included.

within the three bars of a set; these, also, are not playable unlessre-arranged.

The present invention is designed to meet this condition, not only bythe use of additional strings, as above pointed out, but also by makingpossible the substitution of bars. In other Words, the number of barssupplied with the instrument is not limited to the twelve usually foundwith prior harps, but includes additional bars which can be substitutedwithin the bar zone for bars which would remain idle in playing aparticular selection, thus making possible the playing of selections notpossible with prior harps of the type. The instrument utilizes the usualarrange ment of twelve bars, thus being capable of the playing of allmusic playable with the prior harps, and additionally makes possible theplaying of selections not possible with such earlier instruments, doingthis through substitution of bars which could, for instance, beindividual to a single selection.

This result is obtained by making the damping bar zone of such form thatwhile having a capacity of twelve bars, they are so mounted as to becapable of rapid change. The bars them! selves, indicated as at 21, donot differ materially from the usual bars, each being elongated with theunder face carrying the felt damping members 28 properly arranged toproduce the desired chord effect on the assembly of strings, with eachbar carrying its individual arrange-.

ment; the upper face of the bar carries a button.

5 or ,{other .iform of :mounting, indicated; at 2 9,:i'by whichtheubarcan'. be readily" depressedaas .well

asiidentified. The number ,oi-such bars, however',.:ex-ceeds twelve, theactual number found with 'a-n-=instrumentbeing marketed beingdependentfupon the-desires of the purchaser different ircombina-tionsibeing-provided; in fact, special; barsmay be readily fashionedandrsupplied the customer on order.

The bar zone, indicated generally at 30, is located between the soundhole I6 and string rest I3, the sound: hole :beinggositionedpsufilciiently distant 'fromsuch end as to provide ample.space for the-positioning of the :barzone; this-permits the. player ,to,sweep the strings with the pick whemplaying withthe sweep directlycrossing the soundrhole, whilethe bar zone isconvenient to the freehandof theplayer.

The mounting forthebars in the bar zone -is in the form of twohouzingsiil into which the ends of .the..bars extend; since the housingsare individual-and are substantial duplicates, but one of thernwill bedescribedin detail. It may be noted, however, that the housingsarelocated respectivelyin marginal zones of top H beyond thestring zone,.being secured to the top M in suitable manner, as by gluing.

Housing 31 isan open top elongated structure, having a vertical sidewall 32 and apair of end walls 33, the latter projecting. inwardlybeyond the inner face-of the sidewall, thus providing a recessedformation on the inner side of the side wall. The inner exposed facesofthe upper zone of the sideand end wallsare formed with a groove 34 whichis adapted to receive a covering element 35 which is slid intopositionto overlie the recessed .formation, the width, of element 35 being suchas to extend inwardly beyond the inner faces of ends 33. The cover 35 isprovided with. a felt member. 35asecured to a mar ginal zone of theunder .iace of the cover, this zone being locatedto overlie the bars 21.

In practice, this cover...'3'5 is adapted to be inserted into the groove34' .through the open side of the housing, thusbeing positioned abovethe bars at the beginning ofthe inserted period, and then being movedlengthwise of the bars to its seated and service position. .Since thegroove extends along both of the end walls. and the side wall of thehousing, it will be readily understood that when theco'ver is in itsservice position, it .forms a rigid abutment which limits the upwardtravel of the bars when they are depressed. Since thebars are supportedby the springs 31, it is apparentthat they will be moved upward abovethe groove 34 whenever the cover is withdrawn; however, it is. necessaryonly to apply pressure onthe cover with the latter extending. over thebar assembly, with the pressure sufficient to lower the margins of thecover to where the margins can enter groove 34, after which the covercan be readily moved to its service position.

As will .be understood, the open .topof the housing permits freeraising, of any of the bars whenever the two covers are withdrawn andlaid aside, the operator having. free. access to. and from the housingand the bar spaces at such time. When the covers 35 are replaced intoservice position, the, downward pressure on the bars serves toplace.springs 31 under compression such' as will .hold the bars in completecontact with the felt cushion 35a. When the. pressure is removed from adepressed bar, the springs31 for that, bar throw it upward intoengagement 6 with:the-cushion-35a, the contact being made without theproduction of any noise, due to the felt cushion 3511. Hence, thesprings 31 may have sulfici-ent power to provide for rapid movement ofthe bar in the upward direction, while the rigid abutment characteristicof the cover prevents the. aggregate of bars from causing anyderangement of the bar formation under the power produced by theaggregate of springs 31. As a result, the operator can shift rapidlyfrom one bar to another in service with complete assurance that thebuttons 29 will be properly located in inactive positions, and thereturn movements of the bars will be had with rapiditya'n advantageWhere the operator is required to make rapid changes-and without anynoise effect.

For convenience in constructing the housing, the walls 32 and 33 may befabricated so that these walls would be shortened in depth, a thin woodlayer mounted thereon with its inner recess that of the bottom of thegroove, and a top then added overlying the side and end Walls, thesebeing secured together, as by gluing, thus providing the groove 34 in asimple manner.

Theinner face of'the side wall carries a sucsession of thin, verticallyextending division strips 36 projecting inwardly, the space betweenadjacent strips being designed to receive an end of one of the bars21the number of strips is therefore such as to provide twelve of suchspaces. Each of these spaces is provided with a light compression spring31, which may be glued to the top It and on which the ends of v the bars2? are supported; the positioned cover element 35 prevents escape of thebars, while the springs normally retain the felt members 28 out ofcontact with the strings. If desired a thin leather strip 50 may beinterposed between the lowerends of springs 37 and top M, being securedto the top as by gluing, and the springs then be secured to the strip.

As is apparent, when the desired bars ll! are located inv properpositions in the respective spaces, the slidable cover element 35 ateach end of the bar zone is slid-into position over the bars, thusretaining the latter in a common plane un der the restraint of theelement and the presence of the springs under light compression toretain the felt dampers out of contact with the strings, thus leavingthe latter unmuted. When it is desired to utilize a different set ofbars 21 for the playing of a particular musical selection, the coverelements 35 are moved out of their grooves, exposing the bar .zone fromwhich bars which may not be used in playing the selection are removedand replaced by the bars to be substituted, after which the coverelements are restored.

By this arrangement, it is possible to not only largely increase thetypes of musical selections playable on the instrument, but it ispossible to arrange programs of selections covering a wide range oftypes. For instance, since the bar zone is so arranged that the bars areindividual, it

would be possible to use only a single set of three bars-if that is allthat the program requires-- or the program may be arranged in such wayas to include four sets", of which one or more may have special bararrangements, the proper bars being selected and positioned in the barzone prior to beginning the program performance.

In other words, the instrument performance is not limited to the barsets usually supplied with the prior instruments, but, with the Supplyof additional bars, it is possible to largely augment the repertoirewhich can be rendered on the instrument by the player, although thetota1 number of bars in service at one time does not exceed the twelveconsidered as the maximum number which can be utilized withoutconfusion. And, obviously, the flexibility in substitution of bars issuch that a program requiring more than the twelve bars can be readilyrendered, since the time required to change bars is so short thatsubstitution can be made between successive selections.

The invention thus not only provides for greatly improving the tonalqualities of the instrument through the effect of the changes in theconstruction of the body of the instrument which affect the tone timbre,and through the addition of strings to increase the playing range of theinstrument, but, in addition, provides for greatly enlarging therepertoire possibilities, through the ability to make substitutions ofbars, and without increasing the possibilities of confusion with rapidsubstitution of bars a possibility, the repertoire of an experiencedplayer is almost limitless. In other words, through the changesindicated, the auto-harp is changed from the characteristics of aninstrument of low musical possibilities-an instrument having some of thecharacteristics of a toy-to an instrument which, in the hands of theexperienced player, becomes an instrument of real musical merit and ofpleasing characteristics to a listening public. Excepting for tonalqualities, the instrument can duplicate the perform ance of the priorart autoharps--by the use of the bar arrangement of the latterthe changein preferably positioned opposite each other in such manner that thebars 2'! cross the strings at right angles to the direction of length ofthe strings, thus permitting damping members 28 to be of right-angularform to assure non-interference with unmuted strings, and provide forsimple mounting conditions; while the bars can be operatively positionedat a slightly different angular relation to the strings, such positionswould require special forms of clamping members to prevent suchinterference.

This preferred arrangement of the bar zone may, and preferably does,change the contour at the base end of the instrument, the string lengthsof the opposite outer strings, due to the increase in range of theinstrument, presenting a greater variance from the earlier forms. Hence,the outer face of member I! extends angular to the direction of lengthof the bars 21; since the side faces of the instrument generally extendparallel with the strings, the preferred arrangement will present suchouter face of member 21 as extending at other than a right angle to thedirection of length of the longer side face, the form shown in thedrawings.

While I have herein disclosed a preferred form 8 of instrument, it willbe understood that changes and modifications thereof may be founddesirable or essential in meeting the various exigencies of serviceand/or the desires of a user, and I tuned to predetermined tonal valuestogether with a bar zone containing a plurality of normally inactiveindividual damping bars individually arranged for muting predeterminedstrings of the string zone, and wherein the chord effects when renderinga musical selection are produced by the movement of a pick across thestring zone with an individual damping bar depressed from its normalposition to render it active to damp strings having tonal valuesundesired in the chord, the

. improvement therein which comprises having the ends of its individualdamping bars yieldingly supported within permanent housings carried bythe playing face at opposite sides of the string zone, each housinghaving a predetermined number of division spaces each adapted to receivean end of a'damping bar to thereby permit the presence of bars equal innumber to those of the division spaces of a housing, the top zone ofeach housing including a slidable removable cover element overlying anend of all of the positioned bars of the bar zone for normally retainingthe bars therein, removal of said cover elements permitting substitutionof damping bars having other string muting combinations without increasein the number of bars positioned in the bar zone, each housingpresenting an open zone above the division space zone with each of thewalls of such open zone including a groove formation open to the zonewith the groove formation forming receiving portions for margins of thecover to thereby rigidly anchor the cover, the dimensions of the openzone being such as to permit of the free passage of damper bar endstherethrough.

2. An instrument as in claim 1, characterized in that each divisionspace of the housing carries a light compression spring underlying theend of the bar positioned in the space, whereby the springs and thecover elements normally retain the damping bars inactive to mute thestrings, the lower ends of the springs having a secured relationshipwith the playing face.

3. An instrument as in claim 1, characterized in that each divisionspace of the housing carries a light compression spring underlying theend of the bar positioned in the space, whereby the springs and thecover elements normally retain the damping bars inactive to mute thestrings, the playing face fixedly carrying a thin leather stripunderlying the springs of a housing and to which the lower ends of thesprings are individually secured.

4. In musical instruments of the auto-harp type, wherein the playingface includes a string zone formed of a succession of stringsindividually tuned to predetermined tonal values together with a barzone containing a plurality of normally inactive individual damping barsindividually arranged for muting predetermined strings of the stringzone, and wherein the chord effects when rendering a musical selectionare produced by the movement of a pick across the string zone with anindividual damping bar depressed from its normal position to render itactive to damp strings having tonal values undesired in the chord, theimprovement in an instrument of this type for enhancing the playing andtonal values of the type, such improvement comprising a top face member,a bottom member, an intermediate frame formed of peg-carrying members atopposite ends of the frame with the pegs adapted to support the stringsof the string zone in tuned condition, said end members being connectedby relatively thin wooden elements to thereby form in connection withthin wooden cross members a skeleton frame for supporting the top andbottom members and to be peripherally closed by thin wooden elements toform the body of the instrument; the instrument also includingsupporting and positioning means for the damping bars of the bar zone,said means normally maintaining the bars of the bar zone inpredetermined positions within the zone with the means includingslidable cover elements removable at will to permit removal of bars andrapid positioning of substitute bars within the bar zone.

5. An instrument as in claim 4, characterized in that the playing faceis provided with a sound hole exceeding three inches in diameter, withthe hole exposed inward of the bar zone and positioned to underlie thepath travelled by the pick during playing of the instrument, the depthof the skeleton frame being at least four inches.

6. An instrument as in claim 1, characterized in that the complement ofservice damper bars exceeds in number the number concurrentlypositionable in the bar zore, with the bars of the complement eachpresenting a muting arrangement varying from the muting arrangements ofthe remaining bars, with the complete comp1ement including individualbars for all major chords together with bars for minor chords andsevenths.

7. An instrument as in claim 1 characterized in that each slidable coverhas a Width to project inwardly beyond the inner edge of the open topzone and includes a noise-deadening member carried by the under face ofthe cover in its inner projecting marginal zone, said member being incontact with each of the bars when the latter are in inactive position.

CLYDE 13. PAGE.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 559,124 Durkee Apr. 28, 1896674,028 Stewart May 14, 190

FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 6,254 Switzerland Jan. 14, 189340,312 Germany Aug. 10, 1887

